What He Saw and... the Side Quest!

The facts proved that Li Yun's guess had not been far off.

After noticing that the vast majority of living creatures had vanished from the ruins of the city, while creatures such as rats, snakes, and ants could still survive there more or less normally, he had been able to roughly guess where the "way to survive" lay.

—Underground.

But if they really wanted to quickly dig out an underground space large enough to hold more than a dozen people, that was clearly unrealistic.

Especially considering that after the newcomers were sent into the mission world, they only had three days to complete their survival mission...

All he could say was that the Main God might have been planning to make the newcomers dig burrows, but it was unlikely that the Main God actually expected them to do so.

After all, leaving everything else aside, even with suitable tools, a normal person would begin to feel noticeably exhausted after digging a pit for half a day without any additional supplies.

Even the renowned Black Tortoise Gate had not been built in a single day, let alone a proper basement.

This was confirmed when Li Yun dug up several water-rich plant roots to barely replenish his stamina and, while doing so, confirmed that the ruined city was not located in any special geological region. The soil was certainly no looser than the farmland he remembered.

Judging by the time, they probably would not make it if they went looking for some old basement that might exist somewhere in the city but could just as easily have already decayed and collapsed.

Then where else could they hide?

Adjusting his glasses, someone's gaze soon fell upon the tall buildings in the distance.

Relatively speaking, they clearly could not imitate some mole master and burrow deep underground. What was more, after walking all this way, the group had never found any public underground structures such as a city subway.

If there was anywhere nearby that could barely be considered to have "depth," it was probably those areas...

Thus, he "casually" mentioned a few things to Old Li, who was actually a fairly honest man, suggesting that they could consider going over there to take a look.

In fact, it would be more accurate to say that along the way, Li Yun had relied solely on careful observation and thought to drag this group around most of the "pitfalls" hidden among the details.

...But he really could not withstand the fact that the "Old Li" in front of him was acting a little too "honestly"!

To be fair, you couldn't inspect every single problem, could you? What if you actually spotted some huge problem?

Most of the people around him probably still thought that Li Yun had been courting death when he had voluntarily reached out and repeatedly tested that streak of red moonlight.

Little did they know that the senior survivor's act of stretching his head out and then tilting it back to look around just now—that was what truly deserved to be called "courting death"!

The moment he saw the man freeze as if he had been paused, while his mental energy suddenly began fluctuating wildly, behaving just like Mentos dropped into cola, Li Yun knew that the other party had probably seen a "big fellow"!

After all, before they had entered the building, someone had already sensed that faint red halo within the "sunset," despite the fact that no trace of the sun had actually appeared.

...That influence had not yet truly manifested, yet it already affected both the mind and the body.

It was extremely familiar.

It was a faint sign of "entering a dream."

Extremely obscure, yet containing an almost forceful attraction, an irresistible quality.

But it went without saying that the destination of that "entering a dream" would not be an ordinary dream brought about by normal sleep.

There was no need to take the risk.

Being forcibly dragged "into a dream" within a world that was actually a dream sounded rather interesting. Under ordinary circumstances, Li Yun would not have minded experiencing it once or twice.

But that did not mean he could afford to ignore it now—not when this fragment of his mind, this self-projection, or "avatar," was undergoing the tourist mission.

No one knew what would happen if he were dragged into a dream in this situation. Even Li Yun himself did not know. After all, this was merely a rough "design" created by the Main God, and he had not interfered with it.

He had only instinctively sensed one fact: if he wanted to complete the tourist mission smoothly, he had better not let anything obviously troublesome happen.

Therefore, when he realized that this fellow, who had obediently looked up, had clearly been caught, and that his mental fluctuations had immediately begun to "slow down" in an unusual manner—a sign of the trend toward entering a dream—

Li Yun decisively concentrated his consciousness and, relying on the tiny amount of mental strength remaining in his current weakened state, delivered an invisible, intangible heavy blow to him on the mental level!

The man's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed unconscious on the spot. His self-awareness was almost completely severed, and only then was the process interrupted!

But when he turned his head, the man had only just woken up. Perhaps because of the lingering effects, his eyes had undergone some subtle mutation, and he had inadvertently begun seeing something strange again...

"Old Li, I'm starting to think you really don't want to make it through this mission world..."

Seeing that the man had been interrupted in time once again and had not truly fallen in as before, probably only suffering a second stimulation that had temporarily muddled his consciousness, Li Yun could not help sighing.

—If "touching land mines" was a discipline, then the other man was genuinely gifted.

He lightly released his hand and let "Old Li," whose mind was clearly a complete mess at that moment, slump down beside him.

He had just bent his knee and jumped down from the "platform" when the Indian man beside him looked over in shock. Clearly sensing that something was wrong, he called out softly while trying to climb back up and inspect the "divine envoy's" condition.

Ignoring the behavior of this believer, who was clearly still somewhat devout, Li Yun casually answered the anxious questions from the people beside him. "The gentleman up there is fine. He just needs to rest for a while."

Deliberately avoiding the others, Li Yun quietly sat in a sheltered corner. He did not continue observing the changing situation outside, instead closing his eyes to rest briefly.

Under the current conditions, with his body and mental strength greatly weakened, even he could not help feeling somewhat tired.

To be honest, especially when he had given "Old Li" a Mind Blast on the second floor, the energy it had consumed from Li Yun had been quite considerable.

But more fundamentally...

It was probably because, during that extremely brief instant when he released the mental shock and blasted the other man's consciousness, he had also experienced, to some extent, the other party's perception at that moment.

Mental entanglement was often somewhat mutual.

Even without seeing it with his own eyes, that tiny, vague, incomplete "transfer of consciousness information" had allowed Li Yun to indirectly glimpse what the man had seen at that moment—

Through the other man's eyes.

In that sky, where even the light faintly exuded an unusual red hue, there were not only the increasingly dense black cracks.

There was also a gigantic moon, so enormous that it seemed almost unreal. It slowly yet swiftly pierced through the clouds, gradually revealing its suffocating outline within human pupils.

The abnormal difference in brightness between indoors and outdoors caused the "witness's" eyes to register the scene even more clearly in the darkness than they would have during the day.

He saw clearly that it was neither the pure silver-white familiar from human memory nor a hazy yellow. It was a dense, unmelting color, a dark red that made one's heart tremble.

A flawless blood-red moon, as if it had just been fished out of a sea of blood!

...That was the truth the witness had glimpsed at the time.

Within the "memory" of those few seconds of watching, before that "line of sight" finally lost consciousness and sank into a blank—

Someone even noticed details, and perhaps even the whole picture, that the actual witness had failed to notice—or was incapable of comprehending.

...Across that vast blood-colored surface, something "living" seemed to be slowly and viscously flowing.

The perfectly round Blood Moon itself was like a gigantic "eyeball," quietly gazing down from the boundless darkness of outer space at this tiny land...

Gazing at... every pupil that was gazing back at it!

He forcibly cut off the impression and slowly opened his eyes.

He did not even need a mirror to guess that his own eyes must have reddened with blood vessels.

The dim light shining in through the window and scattering across the floor through the glass had grown increasingly crimson. For some reason, it had even begun to appear somewhat viscous.

But he did not pay much attention to this. He merely glanced subconsciously at one of his palms.

That left hand, which he had repeatedly allowed to be illuminated and tested under the moonlight when its color had not yet been so "concentrated," had now returned to at least a surface-level calm.

Yet someone could still sense that subtle spirituality within it, as well as a slight "discordance" existing simultaneously in both the flesh and the mind.

It was very strange.

Under brief, noncontinuous exposure, the specific influence this hand had suffered was naturally not that great.

But after initially suppressing the faint influence originating from the blood-colored moonlight—some sort of unconscious, obscure agitation, or perhaps "assimilation"—he was certain that several changes difficult to truly detect had appeared in this palm of his.

Something... perhaps similar to the so-called "unity of spirit and flesh," in which the mind could directly affect the external characteristics of matter?

No, it had not reached that level yet.

But...

He slowly clenched his fist, and his knuckles gradually tightened as the bones beneath his skin faintly protruded. Along with his thoughts emptying until he was almost free of thought, there remained only a calm clarity that was neither agitation nor obsession.

Soon, a hazy halo faintly appeared over that fist, flickering in and out like a thin veil covering the surface of his skin.

At the same time, an extremely subtle tremor spread through the air, causing the hairs all over his body to rise involuntarily. It carried a faint tingling sensation.

"...Oh, static electricity?"

Things seemed to be getting rather strange.

Within his field of vision, a tiny fragment on the ground appeared to be pulled by an invisible force. It trembled lightly, then suddenly rose from the ground and naturally adhered to his palm.

Li Yun blinked. As that astonishment arose within him, his mind relaxed, and the faint light in his palm vanished without a trace.

...It was very weak, but there truly was a faint connection with his mental strength.

Glancing at the palm that remained smooth as jade, he frowned slightly.

What exactly was going on?

If certain special influences related to the mental aspect were excluded, the qualities of Li Yun's current projected body were indeed considerably stronger than those of an ordinary person. But ultimately, they could still be considered to lie within the limits of common sense.

Yet after merely being exposed to moonlight a few times, it had already begun showing faintly supernatural reactions. Just what was this blood-colored radiance...

Someone suddenly fell silent for a moment.

He abruptly recalled certain things he had seen through "Old Li's" eyes—some easily overlooked details, some deep traces continuing to flow within that "eye" in the heavens...

Blood-colored...

So, was it really blood?

As if confirming Li Yun's guess, a brief prompt suddenly sounded.

[—You have seen through part of the relevant world information. Exploration Score increased by one.]

Unexpectedly, the Main God's voice, still utterly emotionless and businesslike, did not stop there.

[Tourist Li Yun, you have successfully triggered a side quest.]

[Side Quest—Mystery of Divine Blood]

[Quest Introduction: Several years ago, on a certain day, astronomers happened to observe an inconspicuous blood-colored meteor in the vast night. It was falling from afar toward the only satellite of the planet beneath their feet—the moon.]

[What they did not know was that this small meteor, named "Blood Rose," actually carried within it a drop of Divine Child Fetal Blood of unknown origin. For some reason, its remaining main body ultimately and miraculously succeeded in falling onto the moon...]

[Thus, after three planetary rotation periods had passed.]

[In the darkness of night, the blood-colored moonlight that eventually descended shrouded everything within the range of human sight...]

[Quest Requirement: Find a way to reach the place where the Divine Child Fetal Blood first descended within fourteen planetary orbital periods, uncover its secret, and save the life remaining on this planet beneath your feet.]

[Additional Tip: Please note that once you accept this side quest, the tourist's current main quest will automatically be voided. The difficulty rating of the relevant mission world will simultaneously rise to "Four Stars/Medium." Please choose carefully.]

[Quest Reward: Three Universal Points...]

"...Well said. I refuse."

He had not even finished listening to the specific details before Li Yun spoke expressionlessly, decisively making his clear refusal known.

As the quest notification abruptly stopped, the light screen before him and the large amount of text popping up on it vanished together.

He ignored the other people in the office, who briefly cast him looks mixed with astonishment and suspicion, and had no intention of explaining.

Li Yun simply stood up quietly.

What a joke. If he had to put it bluntly, he was merely a "dog planner" here to conduct the initial practical operation tests. At most, he had also come to handle his personal identity information and leave behind traces of it, in case he needed to conceal something in the future.

Who had the time and energy to challenge a quest like this under the current conditions? Just from hearing the background introduction, it was obvious that humanity had probably already been almost completely wiped out in this ruined world. And now he was supposed to find a way to reach the moon within fourteen years at any cost, searching for the place where the so-called Divine Child Fetal Blood had first descended and uncovering its secrets?

That was simply not a level that a Main God User of his current rank should be touching!

...According to one of the rules in the relevant difficulty rating standards established by the Main God at the time—"one star equals two tiers"—

the sudden side quest had leaped from the one-star difficulty of the tourist's main quest to a four-star rating. That meant that, according to the Main God's review, this was a high-level quest theoretically suitable only for an existence of at least the seventh or eighth tier!

Hadn't the quest information explicitly told him to "choose carefully"?

That was clearly a warning that there was a trap inside!